All Hail the King
by a-isforalison
Summary: AU Desperate after moving to the middle of nowhere and his parents' divorce, Evan Goldman finds himself in the middle of a love triangle, at a jock's disposal and a cripple's mercy, with help only from a ginger hobbit. He's willing to do anything to be popular. Even if it means the bitchiest cheerleader in Indiana using and abusing him. [multiship] all characters


Summary: Desperate after moving to the middle of nowhere and his parent's divorce, Evan Goldman finds himself in the middle of a love triangle and some family secrets, at a jock's disposal and a cripple's mercy, with help only from a ginger hobbit. He's willing to do anything to be popular. Even if it means the bitchiest cheerleader in Indiana using and abusing him.

* * *

><p>He's been there for five minutes and he already can conclude that Appleton, Indiana is a dump. There's nothing there, not even a crappy mini golf course to vandalize or a shoddy, abandoned house to dare his friends (who are nonexistent in this shitty town) to go in. Hell, he's probably lucky there's even a Walmart there.<p>

Maybe he can egg some neighbor's houses like he and his friends used to in Manhattan, it was always easy to just skate off afterwards and dodge into an ally or apartment lobby like they were just hanging out and planning to go to a party later. But he doesn't have friends to egg houses with or any alleys or lobbies to duck into here.

"Evan, get the door," his ma calls.

Evan doesn't move from his aunt's couch. His hand digs though his brunette hair as he groans in annoyance. He hates this. So. So. Much.

"Evan David Goldman!" His ma shouts, "get your lazy bum off the couch and get the door while Aunt Pam and I unpack!"

He doesn't flinch. He doesn't even blink. He's used to his ma shouting and nagging him like this. "In a minute!" He shouts back, "I'm busy hating my life," he adds in a grumble.

"NOW, Evan!" Ms. Goldman screams, glaring daggers at her son.

Evan squeezes his eyes shut, counts to three, and lets out a deep breath. The doorbell rings again. He groans and slumps to the door before his ma can open her mouth to scream again.

"What?" He snaps, his green eyes narrowed as he swings the door open.

"Hi," a hot girl with dark hair and pale skin rolls her blue eyes, "my mom made me do this."

"Hi," he grins a little, standing up straighter. _Thank God your mom made you do this._

"So, you're Pam's nephew, right? The one who got dragged from New York?" She asks, shifting her weight to one leg and crossing her arms, tilting her head, calculatingly.

"Yeah, I'm that poor bastard. And you are?" He responds, raising an eyebrow at her bored voice.

"Your hot neighbor, Lucy," she smirks, "and my eyes are a little further up. Not that I mind."

"You're not that hot," he shoots back, trying to not sound awkward and unwilling to be reprimanded like that by some chick he just met.

"Oh, really now?" She looks kind of pissed. Really pissed. "Later, loser." She struts off, her hips swaying and with a flip of the hair.

"Nice ass, Lucy!" He calls after her after working up the courage. He regrets it about half a second later and almost groans about what an idiot he is.

"Language!" His ma shouts.

"Sorry, Ma!" He shouts back to her before groaning about "stupid Indiana." Stupid Indiana with the hot neighbor who must hate him.

* * *

><p>He heads to the Dairy Queen on his skateboard to see if maybe he can run into anyone to befriend here. If his parents are going to split right before his bar mitzvah and then his mom is going to move them from the greatest city in the world to the middle of nowhere while he suffers through puberty, losing all his friends, and losing his popularity, he's going to need friends to deal with it.<p>

And maybe they'll make him feel like less of an asshole who ruins everything.

His eyes squeeze shut at the thought, his hands curling into fists, and his teeth gritting. The wheels snag on a crack and he goes flying off his board. "Crap! Ah! Damn!" He curses, his hands and arms scraped up by the cement, his left knee burning. Evan pulls his knee closer to examine it; his worn out jeans are ripped at the knee, blood gushing from it. "Holy Temple," he hisses, pushing down on the wound.

"Are you okay, dude?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's just a scratch. I'm fine," he shrugs it off, forcing himself to stand despite the burning in his knee.

"Really, man? That looked like a nasty fall," another voice says.

Evan looks up at the two voices, a short guy and a black guy around his age. "Yeah, dude. I'm fine."

"Alright, dude, whatever you say. I'm Eddie, by the way, that's Malcolm," the short one introduces himself.

"Evan," he says, fist bumping them both.

"_Hey you / New kid in town / What's your story?_" Eddie asks.

"_Yo, yo / check out the shoes! / The kid is hot!" _Malcolm laughs, hitting Eddie's shoulder and pointing to Evan's sneakers.

Evan opens his mouth, unsure of what to say. A half sort of word comes out and he ends up saying, "uh" to his only shot thus far of friends to invite to the bar mitzvah he's going to be forced to have. Even though his mom is yet to find a Rabbi for him.

"_Too slow,_" Eddie tells him, shrugging and turning.

"_New kid in town,_" Malcolm finishes Eddie's sentence, or something. Evan isn't really sure.

"I'm from New York!" He exclaims, unsure what else he could possibly say to them.

"_New York City!?_" Eddie and Malcolm chorus.

"What's this about New York, dudes?" A blond guy, around the same height as Evan, who also looks very capable of beating Evan up, asks.

"_He's from New York City!_" Eddie and Malcolm inform the blond guy.

"_But he's too slow,_" Eddie notes.

_"No, no / New kid in town / He don't know / How we roll,_" Malcolm shrugs.

"_Hold up! / Let's give the new kid a shot!_" The blond dude interjects, "Brett Sampson, captain of the football team at Dan Quayle Junior High," he introduces himself.

"Evan Goldman, the new kid in town," he nervously laughs.

_"I know that look I see on your face / You think you've landed in outer space / Well, you've come to the perfect place / 'Cause this is where the party starts / This is where your nightmare's over! / This is where the party starts, / if you know how to roll!_" Brett tells him.

"We'll catch you later, Ev," Eddie waves.

"_Or, _we can take him to the Dairy Queen and introduce him to the babes," Brett grins.

"Meaning we get to see them?" Eddie asks, "I like that idea."

"You'll do like anything to see her, won't ya, Ed? Not that I blame you, they're both smokin' hot," Malcolm snickers.

"Eyes off Kendra, Fudge," Brett says, "she's mine."

"Kendra?" Evan asks as his new friends run off. "Who's Kendra? Uh, I guess I should follow them and find out."

The Dairy Queen is hot when they get there, the AC is broken. Again.

"Hey, girls, _this_ is our new pal, Ev," Brett grins, leaning over the booth of five very pretty girls, a blonde, a brunette, a small girl with curly hair, a black girl, and a girl with a ponytail.

"I know you!" The brunette exclaims.

"Huh?" The blonde tilts her head, "what do you mean, Luce?"

"He's the neighbor boy I was telling you guys about, the one who was staring at my ass," Lucy elaborates.

"I was kidding!" He exclaims, his face flushed.

"You two know each other?" Brett asks.

"You got a view of Lucy's ass?" Eddie asks, "dude, nice."

"Shut up, Eddie! And he's my new neighbor, Brett, Pam's nephew," Lucy explains, batting her eyes a little.

"Ohhh, yeah, I heard her nephew was from New York. And Ev's from New York, duh. Anyways, girls, this is Evan Goldman, the new kid in town," Brett introduces.

"Hiiii, I'm Kendra," the blonde beams up at him, waving.

"Don't be so nice," Lucy snaps.

"I'm Charlotte, so, like, what's your story?" The curly haired girl asks.

"Ignore her, she's a gossip. I'm Cassie," the black girl shakes his hand.

"And I'm Molly," the girl with the ponytail smiles.

"It's nice to meet you guys," Evan smiles back, his eyes sparkling a little.

Lucy pauses for a moment, looking him up, "nice hair," she comments.

"Wait, _what was your name?_" Kendra asks, her forehead wrinkling cutely.

"_New York City!_" Brett, Malcolm, and Eddie exclaim.

"That's his name?" Lucy asks, giving the boys a look.

"Kendra, they like _just_ introduced him to you," Cassie laughs, "his name is Evan."

"Ohhhh, right!" Kendra exclaims, smiling. Evan smiles back again, nervously. "_Hey, Lucy, isn't he cute?_" She giggles a little, nudging her best friend. Brett glares daggers at Evan as his ego obviously inflates a bit.

"I am?" He smirks a bit, scratching the back of his head and looking up.

"_I need a light,_" Lucy complains.

"I'll get it!" Malcolm and Eddie exclaim.

"_Hey, Lucy, don't be such a cow,_" Molly rolls her eyes.

"_Yeah, Lucy, he's pretty cute,_" Charlotte says.

The pale girl rolls her eyes. Evan slouches a little, his ego deflating again.

"_Yo, Ev / Let's go skating / I'll give you a tour / No need to keep waiting / And feelin' bored,_" Brett says.

"_We're goin' swimming at the quarry tonight!_" Eddie and Malcolm grin.

"We'll have to show you where that's at, man," Brett claps his hands together, excitedly. "_I'm not sayin' you're perfect yet / But keep hangin' with your buddy Brett / And you're gonna be glad we met / 'Cause this is where the party starts!_"

"_It's where the party starts!_" The others echo.

"_This is where you're gonna make it!_" Brett and the others tell Evan.

"_Hey / hey / hey!_" They clap their hands, holding out the last hey as Brett repeats himself.

"_This is where the party starts,_" he grins.

"_It's where the party starts!_" The kids exclaim.

"_This is how you're gonna fly!_" Brett belts.

"_This is where the party starts!_" They all say.

"_This is where the party starts!_" Evan echoes.

"_This is where the part starts!_" They cheer.

"_This is where the party starts!_" Evan laughs.

"_If you know how to roll!_" Evan says with them.

_"It's where the party starts!_" Brett noogies Evan. "Stick with me, man, and New York is gonna seem lame," the blond promises his new friend. For a second, it seems like Indiana won't be so bad. Indiana the crapfest might _actually_ let him live and have his bar mitzvah with friends. Except he hasn't told them he's going to have a bar mitzvah. Or that he's Jewish. _Oh, crap._

* * *

><p>"Okay, Ev, think, how can you tell them you're gonna have a bar mitzvah? There's no way that's the norm here, it's Indiana! Not New York. Gah, they probably don't even <em>know<em> what a bar mitzvah _is__!_" He rants to himself.

"A bar mitzvah?" A new voice asks.

"Uh . . . Yeah, I'm having my bar mitzvah in October," he admits, feebly.

"Oh, cool, I'm Patrice, by the way," she introduces herself. _She's pretty,_ he notes.

"Evan, Evan Goldman, I just moved here," he smiles.

"From New York? That's really cool," she laughs a little, "why would you move to Indiana though?"

"It's a long story," he shrugs.

"I've got time," Patrice tells him.

"Well, it started awhile ago. When my dad met a stewardess," he begins.

"No," she gasps.

"Yeah, he ruined my life! My mom was upset, of course. She was like depressed. Then angry. Then she cut him out of all our family photos!" He continues.

"No!" She exclaims.

"With her _teeth,_" he tells her, shaking her by the shoulders a little.

"Oh, my God!" She puts a hand to her mouth.

"Seriously. She didn't say anything about moving though, not until right before we left!" He rants, easing into comfort with this girl.

"That's awful. She dumped you in the middle of nowhere, in the lamest place _in the world,_" Patrice sympathizes.

"It can't be that bad, Brett said it's where the party starts," he pipes up.

"Brett, of course," she scoffs, "Brett's an idiot. It's only 'where the party starts' if you're 'cool' enough."

"And if you're not?" Evan asks, scared.

"It's the lamest place in the world," she refrains.

"You've gotta be exaggerating, it can't be that bad, it just can't be," he insists.

"It is. I mean, you moving here is the most exciting thing to happen to my life since . . . My life. And that's only because New Yorkers have the coolest problems," she tells him.

"There's no way, not with Brett. I just have to have a killer bar mitzvah and I'm in the clear, totally," he says, more to himself than to her.

"Brett's an idiot, him, Eddie, Lucy, Malcolm, Kendra, they're all terrible influences," she scolds.

"But they're cool! I mean, Brett's the captain of the football team, guys like that are walking talking asskickingly awesomacious gods who run schools, if someone like that goes to my bar mitzvah, everyone will go," he reasons.

"Guys like that are jerks, more like it. I get that he made Indiana sound all cool and crap, but it's not and neither is he," she tells Evan, "trust me, I've lived here longer than you."

"Oh, come on, they think I'm cool just because I'm from New York, how awesome is that? I've been here all of five minutes and I'm already set," he laughs.

"I thought you said they didn't know you were Jewish, or having a bar mitzvah. Guys like them don't even know what a bar mitzvah _is,_ Evan," she says.

"I can explain it to them, it's a party with wild dancing and a DJ, to honor me becoming a man, how kickass does that sound?" He tries.

"It sounds great, but they're jerks, and there's like nowhere to _have_ a party here," she scoffs.

"Well, I mean . . . Brett didn't mention anything when he gave me kinda tour thingy," he admits.

"Uhuh, they showed you around and there's nowhere," she shrugs.

"There must be _somewhere,_ this town isn't that bad. I mean, they're showing me the quarry tonight, which means I have to do push ups and sit ups so I don't look like a total dork in front of Lucy and Kendra," he mumbles the last bit.

"There's nowhere," she repeats herself.

"There's gotta be somewhere . . . Hey, if you're so knowing of Appleton, Patrice, why don't you give me the deluxe tour?" He suggests, his eyes lighting up.

"Alright, if you insist. I'll show you around the party palooza ground zero that is Appleton. _There's a church / There's the school / There's a church / There's a tree / And then seven blocks away there's a Walmart / And that's it,_" she deadpans 'enthusiasm' and gives him mocking smiles.

"Ha, ha," he fake laughs dryly, "when Brett was showing me around, there was way more than just churches and the school."

She rolls her eyes and smiles a little, "_well in town / There's a mall / With a Gap / And a Lowe's / And a movieplex, a gym, and a Starbucks._"

"You're depressing to be around, you know that?" He teases like they've been friends forever. She smiles softly and smacks him, playfully.

"What can I say? It's _pretty dull / Pretty sad / A disaster compared to the life you had / It's not the best town / In not the best state / A long way from anywhere that's worth the wait / But I've got a feelin' / I've got a feelin' / You're gonna make it better,_" she excitedly smiles at him.

"You're putting so much pressure on me, I'm just the new kid in town," he laughs.

"_The last fun I had was I don't know when / And everybody here has an IQ of ten / But I've got a feelin' / I've got a feelin' about you,_" she says, "trust me, you're way more than just the new kid."

He smiles, his hands in his pocket. Then, his phone rings.

"Who is it?" She asks, curious.

"My dad," he scowls. "WHY WOULD I TALK TO YOU? YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" He shouts at his phone. "It's all his fault, it's so bad that my mom texted me, earlier, that she found a Rabbi _online._"

"_Could be worse / Wait and see / Ev'ry other kid here's a step down from me / The pickings are slim / The options are tight / But if you're gonna do a party then let's do it right / 'Cause I've got a feelin' / I've got a feelin' / We're gonna make it good together,_" she assures him, "I'll help you with your bar mitzvah and everything."

"_Seriously?_ You're an angel," he tells her.

"_We'll find the best cake / We'll find you a tux / I'll make the invitations but my Hebrew sucks / Still I've got a feelin' / I've got a feelin' about you,_" she laughs.

He hugs her, tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," he says.

"Any time, and, um, well, I live right around the corner so . . . If you need anything, just ask," she offers.

"Totally, thanks, Patrice. I've gotta get ready to go to the quarry though, I'll see ya later," he grins, running up to his new porch. He doesn't see her blush.

"I think he was flirting with you," Lucy says, abruptly to Kendra.

"Huh? What do you mean, Lucy?" Kendra asks.

"New York, I think he was flirting with you, God, Kenny," the brunette rolls her icy eyes, snickering at her best friend's slowness.

"Ohhhh," the other girl makes a thoughtful, 'I get it' face.

"I'm standing _right here!_" Evan exclaims, "and I wasn't." He isn't sure but he can almost swear her hears Brett mutter something along the lines of, "you better not have been."

Displeased with this, Lucy goes on, "he flirted with me earlier, when my mom made me 'welcome him to the neighborhood,'" she picks up a snobby, motherly voice, "he stared at my ass and my boobs."

"I did no such thing," he blushes. She ignores him, again, waiting for Brett's response. The blond _laughs._ He _laughs._ There's a very harsh change in Lucy's mood.

"And he was totally flirting with some hobbit when I was walking home, I saw them like hugging and doing those weirdly flirty shy smiles and she totally smacked him playfully," she carries on, a clear vindictiveness in her tone.

"No," the other girls gasp.

"So, like, he's a player," Charlotte decides.

"Definitely," Cassie agrees as Molly nods, enthusiastically at the gossip.

"I'm not! I was just being nice because she lives around the corner! And I didn't flirt with Kendra or Lucy," Evan defends himself.

The girls pause to look him over. "Messy cute hair," Kendra notes.

"Denim jeans, ripped," Lucy adds.

"Kind of tight baseball shirt," Charlotte pipes up.

"Looks like he's just worked out," Molly says in a slow, thinking voice.

"Expensive sneakers," Cassie catches.

"Totally a player," they say together.

"I'm really not," he groans.

"Dude, it's cool if you are," Malcolm puts an arm around him.

"Yeah, man, Fudge is right. It's sick if you're a player, 'cause then, you can get with Lucy and tell me all about The Tongue and what comes after it," Eddie grins, patting Evan's shoulder.

"I don't wanna 'get with' Lucy," he points out. _I don't even know what 'the tongue' is,_ he thinks to himself.

"Excuse you?" Said girl practically growls, eyes narrowed and an eyebrow raised, her hands on her hips. Brett snickers at his friend's troubles.

"That came out wrong," the dark haired boy interjects, "I meant that there was this girl in New York, Nina, she was smoking hot and I had a crush on her. I came like this close to getting some action from her, too."

"Nice," the boys grin, Brett ruffling Evan's hair.

"Way to go, man," the blond congratulates.

"So . . . You aren't a player?" Kendra tilts her head.

"No," he says as Lucy says yes.

"He so is, Kendra," she scoffs, "he just doesn't want us to know because he obviously wants The Tongue."

"I don't even know what 'The Tongue' is," Evan defends himself.

"It's French kissing," Simon, one of Brett's other friends, explains.

"And if you don't do it, you aren't _really_ dating someone," Lucy adds, batting her eyes in Brett's direction.

"Lucy!" Kendra exclaims, "stop that!"

"Stop what?" The pale girl feigns innocence.

"You know what, it's cheating," the blonde huffs.

"All's fair in love and war," she smirks back.

"If you two will stop the cat fight, we're here," Malcolm interrupts.

"We're not fighting, we're best friends, you idiot," Lucy scoffs, linking arms with the blonde, who smiles happily at Brett.

"Sure looked like fighting," Charlotte singsongs.

"Charlotte, that's a total lie," she rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, totally," Kendra nods.

Evan takes a moment to analyze the two girls as his newfound friends talk about the last time they were all here together (apparently it was last year, in sixth grade, and Kendra had been shorter than Lucy and all the girls were too embarrassed to wear bikinis because only Lucy had anything happening in the boob department, which is only really memorable because Eddie tried to peak down Lucy's oversized rash guard, earning him a knee in the balls). He can't quite place what it is about them that makes him uneasy but something does.

Maybe it's how blatantly the two seem to have some sort of competition for Brett's attention or how Lucy seems to be able to make Kendra agree with everything she says or how Kendra is so stupid that she doesn't seem to realize how Lucy stares insecurely at Kendra's legs or how much of a ticking time bomb they seem to be, but something about them just has him ready to jump ship.

Something very surprising breaks his train of though. The girls are stripping, the boys having done so as they talked. And Evan most certainly did not expect any of them to be so . . . Wow.

She's pale, very, very pale, but her legs are long and pretty, they look smooth to the touch, and he can see that Lucy definitely does have something quite nice happening in the chest area, she's made no effort to modestly hide it with that bikini top. And then he sees Kendra, with even longer legs and pretty much no stomach fat, and a small waist, smaller than Lucy's.

He can see why Brett is so fond of Kendra and why Eddie tried to look down Lucy's rash guard. Of course, his hormones give the other girls a thumbs up too, but Lucy and Kendra are easily hotter.

"New York, are you gonna stare at us or are you going to strip too?" Lucy asks, snarkily.

"Sorry, I zoned out, thinking about my birthday, it's in October," he apologizes with a blush as he unzips his jeans, quick to drop them. Suddenly, with all the girls staring at him, he feels embarrassed about his swim trunks, even though they're just green, like his eyes.

"Your birthday's comin' up, man? Are you turnin' 13?" Brett asks, stretching his lean muscles (and, consequently, making the girls momentarily avert their eyes to him).

"Yeah," Evan nods, now extremely uncomfortable and wishing he had a rash guard like Fudge and Richie (Richie was yet another one of Brett's friends).

"Sick, man, I turned 13 last month," the blond flashes a movie star smile at him.

Evan has never felt more unwilling to take his shirt off in his life. But Lucy arches an eyebrow and he takes a deep breath, forcing himself to. "That's awesome, so, you guys are mostly 12, like me?" He asks, trying to draw attention away from his torso.

"Yep," Lucy pops the P, "Charlotte's the baby of our group though, she doesn't turn 13 until next April."

"Hey! I'm not the baby, Richie's barely older than me," Charlotte interjects. Richie shrugs at this, simply accepting that he's been thrown under the bus.

"Who's jumping first?" Eddie changes the subject.

"I volunteer Evan," Kendra smiles, innocently.

"Good idea, Kendra, I second that," Lucy smirks with malice.

"But he's like the second hottest guy here," Charlotte whines, "can't Richie jump first?"

"I jumped first last time," Richie responds.

"Just let Evan jump first since he's the newbie," Simon says.

"But Evan's hot," Charlotte pouts.

"He is," Cassie shrugs in agreement.

"And fit," Molly notes. Evan feels like his ears are on fire from this conversation. Sure, Kendra had called him cute earlier, but they thought he was hot now? This was just embarrassing.

"Hardly," Lucy sarcastically scoffs.

"You were like drooling over him a second ago," Charlotte giggles.

"I was not," she snaps.

"Ya kinda were," Malcolm nods, shooting Evan a 'you lucky bastard' look.

"Hehehe, Lucy has a crush," Kendra giggles, teasingly.

"Shut up, Kendra," the brunette blushes, angrily, "you know that's a lie."

"It's so not a lie," Charlotte says, eagerly, as Molly and Cassie laugh at Lucy's very reddened face.

"At least I don't like _Eddie,_" Lucy snaps. The curly haired girl gasps, much to Evan's confusion and Eddie's alert.

"I so don't like Eddie!" She exclaims.

"And I don't like New York over there," the pale girl hisses, "right, Kendra?" The blonde nods, nervously. The boys exchange confused glances, none of them quite sure what just happened.

"So . . . Uh . . . I'll jump first then," Evan clears his throat. He regrets it the second he sees the drop down into the quarry. It's terrifying, he's never been a fan of the view down buildings in Manhattan and this, unsurprisingly, is no better. But he knows everyone is watching him and this is a moment in which his fate here and his bar mitzvah's guest list is being decided. So, absolutely horrified, with his feet heavier than slabs of stone, and his heart trying to escape his chest, he jumps.

The water below greets him with an astounding smack. And everything Patrice said comes back to him. _This is worth it, this is so, so worth it._ He swims back up to the air and shakes his head a little, droplets of water flinging themselves off his hair. With an adrenaline filled laugh, he shouts up at them, "the water is frigging freezing."

"Good!" Someone, he thinks it's either Brett or Eddie, shouts back. Soon, he's joined by his new friends in the cold water, Lucy upset by how much smaller Kendra's splash was than hers.

He watches as the two girls argue about something. He isn't sure what but he hears fragments about Brett and Eddie and double dating, then Kendra says something he doesn't catch that makes Lucy say something along the lines of, "shut up, I'm fat" and Kendra says something he swears sounds an awfully lot like a very cheery, well meant, "not everywhere."

The unison gasp of the other girls and the way they stare with baited breath at Lucy almost confirm his ears were right.

A laugh almost slips out but he's plenty smart enough to realize this would get him murdered. Most likely by Lucy. Who, thankfully, only makes momentarily murderous eyes at Kendra before beginning to talk about the sleepover they're going to have tonight.

Evan turns in the water, moving with ease. He sees that Brett has been watching the entire scene . . . Kind of. Well, if the entire scene were just Kendra, Brett would have watched it.

"She's really pretty," he pipes up, trying to start a conversation.

"Huh?" Brett blinks.

"Kendra, she's really pretty. I can see why you like her," Evan elaborates, "don't worry though, I'm still madly in like with Nina."

"Heh, you're pretty smart, dude," the blond grins.

"Thanks, I guess it's a New York thing," he jokes. Brett laughs, and the other boys, who are apparently eavesdropping a little, laugh too.

"Maybe, Ev," he nods, almost thoughtfully.

"So, when are you gonna ask her out?" The brunette asks.

"Dude, I can't just ask Kendra out, she's the hottest girl in school, and she's a good girl. So I can't like hit on her like whack-a-mole, I've gotta be smooth," Brett says. Evan can see how feigned his confidence is in that moment.

"We don't even know how he'd ask her out, or where he'd take her," Malcolm pipes up.

"But we've, like, just gotta think some more, we'll figure it out," Eddie nods with confidence.

"You guys better," Brett reprimands them. And it comes to Evan. If he can figure out where Brett will take Kendra and how he'll ask her out, he's set for good, then he can tell them about his bar mitzvah and pass out his invitations. It's perfect.

All he has to do is make a plan.


End file.
